OneCare calls Gmail malicious

Microsoft warned Live OneCare users this week to update their anti-virus signature after the service began tagging Google's e-mail service as malicious.

The issue first occurred last week when OneCare-enabled users visiting the Gmail website were repeatedly warned that they were infected by a virus called "BAT/BWG.A."

Microsoft reported that the problem occurred after Google tweaked its Gmail site last week.

"Windows Live OneCare customers may have recently experienced an issue that incorrectly flagged files related to Google's Gmail service as a virus," said a Microsoft representative. "This was a limited false positive issue with our anti-virus protection."

On Sunday, Redmond issued a new anti-virus signature that resolved the issue, the spokesperson said, adding that the company hopes to learn from this mishap to improve its security products in the future.

"We are reviewing our procedures and processes in order to minimize the occurrence of further false positives and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused our customers," the spokesperson said.